Friday, February 1, 2013

Women Choose Not to STEM

Why can't we have women in senior ranks of technology firms? Because they don't get degrees in technology fields, specifically Engineering or Computer Science. in 2011 981,759 women got undergraduate degrees. 416,795 in health professions, public administration, education, psychology communications, and visual and performing arts. 23,611 in engineering and computer science.

I have nothing against the former degrees - except perhaps the ratio of people getting degrees to jobs, but that is their problem and they can deal with the high supply and therefore high competition and low wages - but, if you want to be an executive in a technology firm then you might want to start on the rung where they build the products or provide their expertise to customers; otherwise, you start at a disadvantage.

Another 178,012 got business degrees. They will spread across every industry.

Technology, engineering and life sciences are the places where innovation leads to change, higher productivity and job and wealth creation. Our women are choosing not to participate from the beginning.

Accurate Reality: The only way to get women into senior roles in these firms is to overtly discriminate in their favor. That is occurring but it will breed under performance and resentment.